An Immersive Experience – Art Gallery of New South Wales Sydney Modern Project by SANAA

The Sydney Modern Project – the exceptional new wing of the Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW) – was designed by the Pritzker prize-winning Tokyo-based architecture studio SANAA. In scale, design, aesthetic, cultural contribution and budget, the Sydney Modern Project (Sydney Modern) is the city’s most significant cultural build since the Sydney Opera House opened in 1973.

And yet, in keeping with the sensitivity that underpins SANAA’s design approach – particularly to location – the galleries sit lightly, not only connecting with but highlighting the site and surrounds. While being the first museum in Australia to achieve a 6 Star Green Star rating, its contextual relations will be furthered once the Sydney Modern Project finds its First Nations name which, according to AGNSW Director Michael Brand, is currently being sought through consultation with the community.

In scale, design, aesthetic, cultural contribution and budget, the Sydney Modern Project (Sydney Modern) is the city’s most significant cultural build since the Sydney Opera House opened in 1973.

Externally, the northern aspect of Sydney Modern resembles an interlocking series of Mies van der Rohe-esque pavilions that gradate down and across the topography of the site’s north-facing slope. Varying in size and proportion, four of the six pavilions have full-height and width glass walls that allow Sydney’s light to flood into the interior spaces as well as inviting views in from outside. The two other north-facing walls comprise solid expanses of white-painted hand-cut limestone brick, with only one having a slightly larger than human- scale window inserted near its eastern end. While five pavilions have rooftop gardens, only three are accessible; two holding shade structures for outdoor gatherings and events are connected by concrete walkways and wide curving steps that flow gracefully down the sloping roof of the third pavilion – Sydney Modern’s tall glass-walled atrium – that sits in-between. A large, colourful sculpture by Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, titled Flowers that Bloom in the Cosmos (2022), at the top of the stairs enhances the wayfinding function of these connecting structures.

Sited on the ‘land bridge’ above the M1 expressway that passes underneath what is fittingly being referred to as the AGNSW ‘campus’, the southern aspect of the modernist Sydney Modern pavilion complex is connected to the neoclassical structure of the original gallery by the landscaped outdoor Art Garden. Situated at the top, in proximity to the old and new gallery entrances on Art Gallery Road, is the Welcome Plaza – a taller, larger shade structure than those on the pavilion-roofs which is covered with a deeply-corrugated, form-cast glass canopy referencing waves on the harbour. Housing three lofty, spirited sculptures by New Zealand-born, Berlin- based artist Francis Upritchard, titled Here Comes Everybody (2022), this becomes a well-protected civic plaza to accommodate ongoing operations for visitors and activities, and also leads into the Entrance Pavilion of the new complex.

While almost doubling the original gallery’s exhibition space, the interior is designed so as visitors move inside from the top level, they descend into smaller interconnecting zones of contact where they can engage with the art.

Once inside the Entrance Pavilion, Sydney Modern’s interior opens out with views that follow the topography of the northern slope down and into the atrium and beyond with previews of the art – including a very large screen for digital commissions that can be seen from numerous angles – and human activity as well as, with all the glass, vistas of the harbour, Domain parklands, Sydney Royal Botanical Gardens and sky. While almost doubling the original gallery’s exhibition space, the interior is designed so as visitors move inside from the top level, they descend into smaller interconnecting zones of contact where they can engage with the art. There is also a purpose-built learning studio, a Media Lab and multipurpose spaces for public programs, performances and lectures. One of the highlights is the relocation of the Yiribana Gallery from the basement in the old gallery to Sydney Modern’s ground level, rightfully acknowledging the significant continuity and depth of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art and culture.

Another highlight is SANAA’s innovative use of an old military oil tank that has sat unused underneath the gallery since WWII. The Tank is now a 2,200 square metre gallery – with multiple rows of seven-metre-tall columns – that will feature major art commissions and installations, like the monumental five-part sculpture by Argentinian artist Adrian Villar Rojas, titled The End of Imagination (2022), currently suspended in and across the space.

Relationships to site are furthered in Sydney Modern’s interior with a strong, organic feature that also speaks to the sandstone structure of the original AGNSW; curving dramatically through the building and echoing the northern slope’s contours is a 250-metre long, two-storey high rammed earth wall constructed out of local sand. In addition, at entry level, the interior has the first-of-its-kind bio-resin gallery store. Designed by Akin Atelier with Hayden Cox, its luminously opaque walls were made in Sydney using surfboard material with pigments that gradate in colour to reflect the striated, layered sandstone geology of the Sydney basin.

Conceived by Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa as “a kind of park” so that visitors can enjoy the art and the buildings while also experiencing Sydney’s natural beauty, Sydney Modern is about experiencing all of these things together. Responding to the site’s prodigious views and features, the design is continuous and harmonious with its context – both inside and out. But it is also about creating a place that people enjoy being in and sharing with others, building a community around the art it contains while creating spaces that can be used in a variety of ways. Sydney Modern is an expansive transformation of the AGNSW on many levels; its sensitive and calculated design enables immersive experiences of the art and the environment, drawing our attention to both and suggesting a way forward for the living roles that art and design might play in a more inclusive future.